Portable garden hose reel carts and caddies are quite popular among both residential homeowners and commercial and industrial users in so far as they allow the individual to easily and quickly maneuver the garden hose to various locations about a home or site by avoiding the hassle of dragging or carrying the garden hose. However, after the garden hose is used to discharge water onto lawns, vehicles, decks, siding, gardens, tools, etc., the hose must be rewrapped on the caddy where the hose is stored for future use. Generally, a simple hand crank interconnected to the shaft on which the garden hose is mounted is manually rotated for reeling in the garden hose. While this may not seem a difficult task, some garden hose carts support up to 200 feet of garden hose, and not everyone can easily reel in this amount of garden hose. Therefore, various types of mechanisms have been designed to facilitate the reeling in of garden hoses supported on portable carts and caddies.
For example, the Nelson patent (U.S. Pat. No. 4,813,627) discloses a rewindable hose reel that includes a flat coil spring that is selectively wound and unwound on and off of a spring tensioning spool that includes a ratchet pawl assembly for locking the unwound spring in position during hose unreeling and for releasing the coil spring to wind in the garden hose.
The Nelson patent (U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,627) discloses a garden hose reel caddy having a hose reel mounted adjacent the ground and a gear drive mechanism that allows for the elevated mounting of the hand crank so that the user does not have to stoop to reel and unreel the garden hose.
The Simonetti patent (U.S. design Pat. 321,123) discloses the design for a hose reel cart that includes a single wheel, opposed side frame members between which the garden hose is mounted, and a pair of upwardly extending handles spaced from each other and attached to each side frame member.
The Nelson patent (U.S. design Pat. 328,173) discloses the design for a garden hose reel cart that includes an elevated hand crank and wheels that are disposed in non-contacting relationship to the ground when the cart is at rest.
The Plantz et al. patent (U.S. design Pat. 404,286) discloses the design for a garden hose reel that includes a drum or barrel-shaped housing for the garden hose, and a handle to transport the garden hose reel.
The Nelson patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,381,981) discloses a garden hose reel that includes left and right halves that are joined together by interlocking structures that include screw fasteners that distribute the torque forces, with the conjoined halves having inwardly tapering hose support surfaces that keep the garden hose centered on the hose reel.
Nonetheless, despite the ingenuity of the above devices, there remains a need for a garden hose reel wherein the garden hose is easily and quickly retractable without the need of employing a cumbersome hand crank.